"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Just goes to show, if you weren't there yourself you can't read to much into what people think they witnessed or take it as gospel. Remember season 10 when someone posted a ticket and said he was on flight with the final 3 teams and we all know that wasn't so, Lyn & Karlyn were not on that flight with Rob/Kim and Tyler/James. Thats just one for instance.

I've heard sources say that they heard (near the place where it happened) that the contestants came from the airport straight from Dubai.

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There is a dancing group in Zoutkamp. This group dances Volksdansen (Dances for the people (bad translation)). They were told very little, but they knew they had to dance on July the 30th. On Tuesday they heard that there would be camera's on Thursday July the 30th.

On July the 29 I walked through our harbor with my dog and saw people drinking coffee who normally wouldn't be there. Since I heard about the camera's I've deducted that they could be the cameramen I've heard people talk about. There were a lot of busses that were rented in Amsterdam, because they had 020- telephone numbers (this makes the schiphol route plausible). This triggered my interest, so I decided to return to the harbor the next morning. When I left my house there was a helicopter flying above the village. .......

I decided to see what would happen and made me a pot of coffee and chose a nice spot to sit and watch what would happen. There was a camera on a pole which filmed everything that happened.

Then I've heard other people say things about the spectacle and I've deducted that they probably took this route on bicycle (the road that seems to go straight to Zoutkamp is a dyke):

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When they reached this point they stepped of their bycicle and followed the following route

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At the end point they had to do a brainteaser of some kind, because they stayed there for a while.

After this they bicycled to a local camping where they had to dance or do Farmersgolf.

Was there anything helpful in the special thanks section of the credits??

Logged

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

This is a strange episode for backtracking on the airline flights. The first thing to establish is what the pit stop duration was. That is quite hard to estimate. I am starting with the projected checkin times from my guesstimation of them early this past week. To that I have to add a fudge factor to each one to get a uniform result. Those fudge factors are:

So, I conclude that uniform result is a 25 hour pit stop. If it were 24 hours, the fudge factors would be too high, indicating that an hour to an hour 48 minutes has to be added to my original estimates. If it were 26 hours, then the fudge factor for all would negative, which is highly unlikely since my original guesstimes were conservative.

What can I next conclude? I cannot understand how Meghan/Cheyne would miss a connecting flights to Amsterdam that weas well after 113pm (to allow them to get to the airport and book it) and on or before 305pm:

Note that none of the other 5 teams have a chance at this flight. So, how did WRP force all teams onto the same flight for Bunching? I don't know, but I have three hypotheses:

1. That the clue specified the use of KLM airline2. that the clue specified use of only a nonstop flight, which is equivalent to specifying KLM as they have the only ones3. unlinkely, but maybe this flight combination was full for July 30, forcing Cheyne/Meghan to get the next best arrival time, KL428 on July 31.

There were several flights before a huge 6 3/4 hour gap in connections to reach Amsterdam (Dubai from 550pm to 1040pm).

There were several flights that connected through Bahrain leaving Dubai at 2pm through 1145pm but they all arrive AMS at 610am, well after KL428.

The Netherlands part of episode 7 started with a drive from Schiphol Airprot north and a little east. The MONUMENT shown was on a causeway. I have determined (not from the obvious looking at a map but through matching the monument on Internet articles) that the causeway is the Afsluitdijk, the road is the A7, and the E2 circle is close to where the Afsluitdijk Monument is. The North sea is on the left and the IJsselmeer is on the right of the causeway.Here is a map showing where it is with respect to Groningen, which is at the far right:

you can run, but you cannot hide... OK, buildings can't actually run... but you get my drift... THIS is the dance hall! (just a little more east of where we all thought it was. closer to the camping toilets). I guess Bing is good for something...it has higher resolution maps than Google... this building is massive enough, and it has the little side building hiding in the woods

I must say, this was one exciting leg, when it came down to Brian and Ericka and Maria and Tiffany at the end. I honestly thought from the beginning that Brian and Ericka would be last on an NEL, but who was to know that Maria and Tiffany would have been eliminated.

Sam and Dan - Great work this leg! But I didn't catch the part about them revealing that they're gay, hmm. Perhaps it wasn't the most strategic move for Sam to whisper the answer of the number of bells, but it was nice of him to do so anyway. Too bad the girls were eliminated in the end.

Meghan and Cheyne - Another strong finish despite them struggling at the Detour! I thought that another team would have caught up, but they still did so well.

Flight Time and Big Easy - It was great time redeemed, from last place to third. It was hilarious, them doing the Detour, lol.

Gary and Matt - Nice first place finish at the Roadblock! I'm really liking this team now, father and son are so sweet and are working so well with each other. This race has indeed brought them so close together. =)

Brian and Ericka - WOW at their luck, seriously. I honestly thought that they'd be last! This was definitely not their finest leg, but I was rather moved when Brian showed so much support to Ericka at the Roadblock. He was so patient, telling her not to give up, encouraging her all the way. I just went "awwww" when he welcomed Ericka with a hug at the bottom of the tower. I really love this team, but I hope that Ericka could take a chill pill.

Maria and Tiffany - Anyone with me that this Detour wasn't very fair? And I wonder what on earth was Maria doing at the Dance Detour, couldn't she hit that thing properly? It hurts to see them go out this way. Both Detours were really tough and kinda required physical strength, which was a disadvantage to them. But I'm just so proud of them, how they tried to the very end and never gave up. Please bring them back for All-Stars! This female team ROCKS!

Five teams remain... Here's just a random guess as to how the final outcome of the race will be.

1. Brian and Ericka2. Meghan and Cheyne3. Sam and Dan4. Gary and Matt5. Flight Time and Big Easy

Maria's statement in her blog clarifies the way the ending of last night's episode was edited.

It sounds as if we'll be told officially that they were eliminated as a result of the 24-hour penalty in the next leg, because that's the only way the press release for the next episode can be reconciled with what we saw last night. It also suggests to me that the next leg may be completed before M/T would have left the pit stop, which would explain the odd editing last night where M/R tell Phil they want to quit the task and the Race, and Phil was not actually shown telling them they were eliminated. This becomes only the second time that the 24-hour penalty has been assessed, as far as I know. While I was suspecting the 24 hour penalty might have been involved, the confusion about which leg was a NEL, and how that works with this sort of penalty, was there and I wasn't sure how this was supposed to play out.

This also clarifies the Elimination Station clip. I now take that to mean that M/T did travel to Sweden with production, and that now fits in with M/T acting as decoys in Tallin.

Note that none of the other 5 teams have a chance at this flight. So, how did WRP force all teams onto the same flight for Bunching? I don't know, but I have three hypotheses:

1. That the clue specified the use of KLM airline2. that the clue specified use of only a nonstop flight, which is equivalent to specifying KLM as they have the only ones3. unlinkely, but maybe this flight combination was full for July 30, forcing Cheyne/Meghan to get the next best arrival time, KL428 on July 31.

It was in the audio track. I heard it when Sam & Dan approached to buy tickets. They said something like "We need the next non-stop flight to Amsterdam." And KL 428 is it.